Report of Minnesotans being part of Kenya attack questioned

September 23, 2013 - 6:29 AM

CNN reported Sunday that a Twitter site listing alleged attackers in the siege at a mall in Nairobi, Kenya, included the names of two Minnesotans, but the accuracy of the information was called into question.

Jason Straziuso, an Associated Press correspondent in East Africa, tweeted that the names were fake and had come from a bogus Twitter account.

CNN had said the list identified two of the alleged hostage-takers as Ahmed Mohamed Isse, 22, of St. Paul, and Abdifatah Osman Keenadiid, 24, of Minneapolis. The names were among nine listed on a Twitter account that later was suspended, CNN reported.

Sources within the Twin Cities Somali community said Sunday that neither of the names attributed to Minnesotans were familiar to them.

“They’re not matching the names we’ve heard before,” said Abdirizak Bihi. His nephew — who was later killed — was among more than 20 Somali-American men from Minnesota believed to have been recruited to fight for Al-Shabab in Somalia’s civil war.